The disclosed invention relates generally to a material transport system and, more particularly to a material transport system having a continuous railroad car with a support and transfer system for transporting and unloading cargo.
Current procedures to replace a railroad bridge involve bringing replacement beams to the bridge site using standard gondola or flat cars. Unfortunately, continually feeding the replacement beams to a track crane is not possible using the standard gondolas or flat cars. Consequently, the replacement beams are brought days before the actual installation. The on-line track crane must unload the replacement beams into a track shoulder near the bridge. This requires a first work window to be scheduled to coordinate the operation of the track crane, a locomotive, and a crew to unload the replacement beams from the cars. Then, another work window must be scheduled on the day of installation to retrieve the replacement beams from the track shoulder and to install them at the bridge site. Therefore, there exists a need in the art for a material transport system that can continually feed replacement bridge beams to a track crane.
The disclosed invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems discussed above.
The disclosed invention provides a material transport system for transporting cargo to a location and unloading the cargo at the location. In one embodiment of the disclosed invention, the material transport system includes a plurality of continuous rail cars. Each of the rail cars includes a floor. Intermediate rail cars have a bridge extending from the floor that overlays a portion of an adjacent rail car. An articulated coupling of the rail car with the adjacent car is positioned adjacent the bridge and enables pivotable movement of the cars relative to one another.
The material transport system includes a support and transfer system for the cargo. The support and transfer system includes one or more guides and one or more supports. The one or more guides are mounted to each floor of the rail cars. In one embodiment of the disclosed invention, among others, each guide may include a transition communicating with an adjacent transition of an adjacent car. In one embodiment of the disclosed invention, among others, each of the one or more guides may include a channel defined by first and second channel walls mounted to the floor of each rail car. In one embodiment of the disclosed invention, among others, each of the one or more guides may include a flared portion communicating with an adjacent flared portion of an adjacent car. Each flared portion may be defined by channel walls of each guide angling away from one another.
The one or more supports are used to support and move the cargo on the floor. The one or more guides are used to guide the movement of the one or more supports. The supports are movable along the one or more guides to transfer the cargo between cars. In one embodiment of the disclosed invention, among others, each of the one or more supports may include a support member having one or more motive members attached thereto. In one embodiment of the disclosed invention, among others, each motive member may include a structure movable in a channel defined by first and second channel walls of one of the guides. In one embodiment of the disclosed invention, among others, a plurality of guide rollers may be disposed on the motive member adjacent the structure to prevent the structure from binding on the channel walls of the guides.
The foregoing summary is not intended to summarize each potential embodiment, or every aspect of the invention disclosed herein. Furthermore, the foregoing summary is not intended to summarize the appended claims, which follow, but merely to summarize some aspects of the disclosed invention, among other aspects.